Hooked on crocheting

Pardon the unoriginal title. Being creative just before dinner is hard. So's knitting. Well, knitting with difficult yarn, or knitting a difficult pattern, or combining the two. I finally got so frustrated that I decided to (re)learn crocheting.

I haven't crocheted in years, and although other family members have done it, I never quite felt it was for me. Also, I think crocheted clothing looks dorky.

But I have this yarn, this expensive, cerise (that's a color) Egyptian cotton, originally destined to be a knitted sweater. A sweater I started on and even got as far as setting in the sleeves (raglan turned out not be hard) and trying on; the sweater was too small. So I started over with larger needles, or was it more stitches, or was it both? At any rate, after at least 4 attempts, I gave up so the yarn's been sitting there, reminding me that I sure know how to waste time and money.

So I tried to knit a cowl. A cowl that you knit in the round in its final length, so you just knit as many rows as you want to make the desired width. Didn't make it past casting on the 208 stitches, and I tried twice. Stupid optimism.

The yarn came off the knitting needles, the knitting needles got shoved into their case. I dug out my set of crocheting needles and a new crocheting book I bought that has recipes for nothing but granny squares. Pretty, colorful and varied granny squares. You know, the woolen square things your aunt has a whole blanket made out of. I noted all the recipes labeled "beginner" and "easy" and have now gone through 4 out of 6 patterns. Testing the waters, really. Teaching myself how to read crocheting recipes because that is some weird shit, as baffling as calculus formulas, if not worse.

Then I realized that the baffling diagram that the book author provided was less baffling that the written instructions. I was actually able to ignore the latter by following the former. I can't handle all the abbreviations since I can't remember what is what of half-masts or half-casts or whatever they're called, anyway. But a little symbol that looks like a T wearing a cummerbund makes sense to me.

I may make a shawl or something. Maybe a bed cozy. Or I'll just keep teaching myself granny squares. I need to experiment with other needle sizes and stuff, but for now, my expensive Egyptian cotton is a pleasure to work with and I am completely enjoying myself.


The Daily Prompt: Thwart